


The Second Wave

by lightsaberlesbian



Series: Humans Fanwork Challenge 2017 [5]
Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, F/F, Second Wave Feminism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-26 01:17:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14989589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightsaberlesbian/pseuds/lightsaberlesbian
Summary: Miaura as activists for women's liberation in the 1960's.





	The Second Wave

**Author's Note:**

> AU Week, Day 1: Historical AU + Ship Week 3, Day 4: Miaura = Killing two prompt-birds with one fic-stone!  
> 

_London, 1963_

The sound of steam-powered automobiles driving by outside the window of Mia’s one-room flat and the occasional honk of their horns was more than enough evidence of the rise of the urban-industrial world. In the tiny room, Laura grabbed the little silver lighter with the dried violet glued to it – a gift from Mia -, placed a cigarette between her lips and lit it up.

“Write this:” said Laura, resting against the headboard, the bedsheet covering most of her body. She took her first drag of smoke and exhaled, “Under capitalism, the woman is enslaved two times over. She becomes an animal tamed by her master, as she is conditioned into subjugation, undesired domesticity and maternity by men. Simultaneously, she becomes the slave of a society solely based on money and on the privileges maintained by the authorities of the state and the armed forces – both of which consist of men - to defend power, control and monetized industry.”

“Oh, if only Joe could hear you now,” Mia laughed from where she sat by the typewriter, fingers running across the keys.

As Laura’s husband was a doctor and often had friends from the medical circles  of London over for dinner, she knew very well of his loathing of women’s resistance. According to him and his colleagues, women were inferior to men due to their biology. They’d be seated around the dinner table drinking their whiskey and shamelessly claiming that a certain variety in the female brain in fact _required_ them to be controlled by men.

Just the thought of raising Mathilda and Sophie into such a world made her sick to her stomach.

“He’d blame you,” she took another drag from her cigarette.

“Are you calling me a bad influence?” Mia  turned to look at her, with her eyebrows raised teasingly and a smug little grin across her lips.

“You bet I am.”

Laura had married Joseph Hawkins a little over a decade ago and it was during those years, with the man she thought she'd spend the rest of her life with, that she realized the misery of being born a woman. When she met Mia, she had soon been introduced to a world of theories, analyses and explanations for all the degradation she'd encountered along with a whole world of experiences she never thought she would have.

She continued as she watched the smoke rise to the ceiling, “The woman is mutilated through prejudice and the conventions created by society that are forced onto her from birth. In both free love and in forced marriage, the man is but a troglodyte: he has the right to the woman as his property; he can beat her broken if she does not fill her patriarchal purpose or kill her if he only suspects her of betraying him. The man is jealous, vengeful, possessive and is conditioned to see the woman as his possession, as his slave."

Joe agreed with her on some things; he opposed prostitution, but his reasons differed from Laura’s. While she regarded prostitution as equivalent to rape, exclusively existing for the pleasure of the male and at the expense of the woman, Joe believed the women to be the sexual deviants, that they were demanding to be treated as objects instead of the reality of being unwillingly objectified by men.

“The woman is reduced to a body only, as dormant as a machine. Her soul sleeps in an unconsciousness created by dogmas, created by the patriarchy, created by men. In order to wake up from this slumber, to become a fully conscious being – no, to become a _being_ at all – able to live to her full potential the woman must emancipate herself. A deconstruction of the very core of the unequal society we live in must occur. By living in relationships with women, the man is given access to the woman’s body and her labor: reproductive, emotional and social. Refusing relationships with men and refusing a lifetime being available to men is to refuse to live according to the premises of the patriarchy and is therefore key to its absolute destruction.”

“Perfect,” said Mia as she stood up from her little writing desk and went towards the bed. The satin black chemise she wore went perfectly with her beautiful shiny raven hair, Laura thought and bit her lip. “I’m proud of you, Laur.”

“Do you think they’ll like it?” She asked.

“I know for sure that Niska’s going to love it. Hester too.”

“And you?”

Mia smiled wide, the morning sun making all of her almost glow with pride as she sat down by the foot of the bed. “I love it too, like I love everything you do.”

Laura took her last drag from the cigarette before putting it out on the way too full porcelain ashtray on the bedside table. “Come here,” she murmured and stretched out to take her loved one into her arms.

 


End file.
